


Keep Working On It

by laurus_nobilis



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/M, Getting Together, Post-Canon, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Season 5 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:55:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24798046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurus_nobilis/pseuds/laurus_nobilis
Summary: In the ruins of what used to be the Fright Zone, Hordak and Entrapta build a kingdom for Scorpia and a relationship for themselves.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 49
Collections: Turing Fest 2020





	Keep Working On It

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hokuto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hokuto/gifts).



There were plenty of things to fix now that Horde Prime was gone for good. In a way, Hordak was grateful for all the work. It meant he had a very good excuse not to be around the princesses. He wasn't ready for that yet - truth be told, he wasn't sure if he would ever be. But the whole point was that he wouldn't need to think about that for a hopefully long time. Scorpia was around, more or less, since the former Fright Zone was now being rebuilt into her kingdom. Still, their respective obligations were different enough that they could go for days on end without crossing paths.

Which meant that most of the time it was just him and Entrapta. And he was very much enjoying that. She was very loudly enjoying it, too.

"This is amazing! Look at all the machines we can salvage!" Her voice was muffled, since she was upside down and shoulders deep into a pile of scraps at the moment. "I thought everything would be destroyed, but there's— oooh, here's a beauty!"

"What did you find?"

"It's a sweeping brush!" She finally looked up from her pile of trash, showing off her discovery in a triumphant pose. "This will make everything go so much faster!"

Hordak found himself smiling just a little. He did that more and more often, now. Some of Entrapta's enthusiasm must have been rubbing off on him.

"Things are going fast already," he said. It was true. Entrapta had brought a small army of the maintenance bots that took care of her castle back in Dryl, and they were doing a lot of the heavy work.

"But once I upgrade the maintenance bots with this, they'll be even more efficient. There have to be other brushes lying around somewhere. We'll be done in no time!"

Hordak made a vague, non-committal sound. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. He knew this work wasn't going to last forever, but there was no need to hurry its end, either. Not just because he wasn't particularly eager to deal with everyone else - although that was also a factor. But these last few days, he'd felt almost the same way he had back when he and Entrapta had started working together. Just the two of them - well, and occasionally Emily - being a team. It was… nice.

"What I'm trying to say is…" He winced at his own attempt at honesty and looked away. "We don't need to rush."

The noise of Entrapta moving things around stopped. Hordak turned around to face her again, and found her staring at him with a thoughtful look.

"Ooh. I see what's happening." She smiled, and patted his shoulder with some strands of her hair. Not that long ago, Hordak would have hated that, but now it felt almost reassuring. "I like working with you too, you know. We're not going to stop being friends just because we finished this project. We'll just move on to a new one!"

Well. He hadn't thought of that. That was embarrassing, not that he would admit it aloud. At least now he had a good opening to change the subject.

"Right. We still have plenty of work to do after clean-up." 

Hordak looked around at what was left of the room. It was a disaster, and so far, all the places they'd been in where more or less the same. Even after taking out all the scraps and garbage, the Fright Zone still would not be fit to live in, let alone be called a kingdom. He wondered why he even cared about that - but here he was. He had started to care about a lot of things, lately. It was still a little unsettling.

Suddenly Entrapta's face was right next to his.

"You look thoughtful," she said. "What is it?"

He hesitated for a moment. Then he decided that this was his chance to try that new honesty thing he was still working on.

"I want to… be a better person," he said, slow and deliberate, before he could change his mind. " _You_ make me want to be better. Do friends do that?"

Entrapta went quiet at that question. Not in a bad way, Horday thought - _hoped_. She merely looked thoughtful. She sat with her legs crossed in midair and grew still for a little while.

"Yes… I think so," she said. She wasn't looking at him directly, which was unusual of her. "And other kinds of people, too. Closer people."

"Closer than friends?"

The idea stirred something nameless in him. It felt right, even if he didn't fully understand it. Entrapta looked up at him and smiled.

"Yes. You know—"

There was a sudden crashing noise near the entrance of the room. Hordak winced, and that split second was enough for Entrapta to make the jump all across the room to see what had happened.

"Hi, Emily! Hi, Wro— uh, I mean, how are you calling yourself today? Did you find a good name yet? And did you hit yourself really hard just now?"

"I don't know, not yet, and I'm fine," said the clone. He had that annoying cheerful tone, as always, even if he had just bumped into a giant pile of scrap metal. But, of course, his body was resistant. Hordak tried not to seethe. Entrapta liked him for some reason.

At least he was here to do something specific, this time. Scorpia had sent him with updates. The downside was that said updates came in the form of a video recording, projected by Emily, where Scorpia herself told them all about the work they had been doing for the past few days. There was useful information hidden somewhere within all the rambling, but it took quite some time for the video to get there. There were used to this kind of reports by now, however. Entrapta had immediately turned on her own recording device so they could re-listen to the news as much as needed.

"Great! I've got it!" said Entrapta when the video was over. "Hey, guys, do you want to stick around for a while? It's about time for us to take a break. We can get tiny cupcakes!"

For a horrible moment, it looked like the clone was going to accept. Then, to Hordak's great relief, he shook his head.

"Maybe some other time. We still need to help Princess Scorpia with her own work."

"Oh. Okay." Entrapta sounded disappointed, and that was almost enough to make Hordak feel bad about being glad the clone had left. Then the 'almost' part disappeared when she turned to look at him and asked an unexpected question. "Why don't you like him?"

"I never said I don't like him," he replied. He tried not to sound defensive, but he suspected he'd failed.

"But he noticed it. He asked me about it the other day, and I didn't know what to say. I know I talk a lot about friendship, because I'm a princess and all that and I think maybe I'm supposed to, but I'm still figuring it out myself. But one thing I know for sure is, it's really hard to stop irritating people when they won't tell you what you're doing wrong. So, why don't you like him?"

That odd, nameless feeling was there again. They were arguing; he was supposed to be angry at her, or at the very least annoyed. But all he could think of was how kind she was to everyone. A lot kinder than him, that much was for sure. And that was also a strange thought, because until very recently Hordak hadn't cared at all about being kind. If anything, it was the opposite: he did his best to avoid those weaknesses. Except that now he wasn't sure he even saw it as a weakness, anymore. It was all far too confusing.

The one thing he could do, he supposed, was answer her question.

"It's unfair that he's so happy," he grumbled. He looked away from Entrapta, arms crossed. "Being a defective clone caused all my troubles. And look at him! He's so… cheerful."

"Ooooh. Right," Entrapta said, as if this explained everything. "You missed his existential crisis stage."

That sparked Hordak's curiosity in spite of himself.

"His what?"

"His existential crisis stage! When he was just disconnected from the hivemind, he was questioning the meaning of his entire life. He wasn't always happy, it took him a lot of work to get there."

Hordak grumbled a little. He hadn't known that, but he didn't want to admit it. Especially because it made sense in retrospect and, all things considered, he should have suspected it. So it was doubly embarrassing. At least Entrapta kept talking without expecting him to say anything.

"Besides, he kind of looks up to you. That's why he wants to pick his own name."

"He… looks up to me?" Hordak repeated, surprised.

"Yeah! Well, except for the whole taking over the world part," said Entrapta. "But you're the first clone who chose a name and made a life of his own. In a way, if he and the other clones have it a bit easier now, it's because of you!"

That was so completely unlike how Hordak had expected this conversation to go that for a few moments he could only stay in silence, still processing what he had just heard. It would never have occurred to him to think of himself as a positive influence. For anyone. And yet it looked like, after all, he had managed to do something good for other people. Even if it had been by accident.

Entrapta brought him out of his distraction by poking his forehead with her hair.

"Did I break you?"

"I— no. No, I was just distracted. Today is giving me a lot to think about."

"Good things, I hope."

Hordak allowed himself another small sigh.

"Yes. Good things," he said. And one of those was something that he probably should address right now, before he lost his nerve. He was starting to doubt already, and it must have been showing in his expression, because Entrapta tilted her head and stared at him.

"Is something wrong?"

"Not wrong, no. But you were going to say something, before we were interrupted," he said, trying to steel himself. "About being closer than friends."

"Ooooh, that." It was her who looked kind of embarrassed, now, which surprised him. "That might be a bit hard to explain…"

"No, I— I think I understand what you mean," he interrupted. It was rude, but the alternative was waiting long enough to change his mind. He couldn't risk that. "And, well. I think I would like to try."

" _Really_?" Entrapta's whole demeanor changed in a split second. Her smile became even wider than usual, and then she was suddenly giving him the tightest hug of his life. "That's great! I wanted to try that too! We can move on to the next stage of our relationship experiment."

That sounded very nice, but there was something that Hordak needed to admit first.

"The only problem is… I don't know what the next stage is, exactly."

She held onto him with just her hair, so that she could open her arms in enthusiasm.

"We'll figure it out as we go!"

At last, Hordak smiled back at her. It was funny: every time he had tried to plan things, to be on top of every last detail, it had gone horribly wrong. Sometimes for him, sometimes for those around him, but always wrong. It had been Entrapta who'd made him get used to improvisation. And right now, he thought, that was an idea he could get behind.


End file.
